Decades later, South Korea exonerates victims of wrongful convictions

Choi Mal-ja raises her hand as she leaves the courtroom after her first retrial hearing at the Busan District Court, Wednesday. Choi, who was convicted in 1965 for injuring a man who tried to sexually assault her, had prosecutors seek her acquittal during Wednesday’s retrial. Yonhap

In 1964, Choi Mal-ja, then 18, was walking her friends home when a stranger abruptly sexually assaulted her.

The man knocked her to the ground and attempted to kiss her. As Choi fought back, she bit off about 1.5 centimeters of his tongue. A year later, a court sentenced her to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, rejecting her plea of self-defense.

But 61 years later, the tide of justice has shifted. At her first retrial hearing Wednesday at Busan District Court, prosecutors recommended acquittal and issued a formal apology.

“The prosecution should have judged the case fairly, free from bias,” a prosecutor said in court. “Rather than protecting Ms. Choi from prejudice and secondary harm, it caused her suffering. We apologize for failing to recognize her as a victim of sexual violence.”

Choi’s case reflects a broader reckoning within South Korea’s judiciary, which is reexamining past rulings in an effort to acknowledge and address the harm caused by wrongful judgments. The move also signals a growing willingness to confront historical injustices and could pave the way for more victims to seek redress and closure.

This shift towards reevaluating past judicial actions was further underscored by a recent ruling in the Seoul Central District Court.

According to a government statement released Thursday, the court ordered the state to pay 64.23 million won ($46,900) in compensation to the family of the late Han Sam-taek, who was accused of ties to the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a pro-North Korean group known as Chongryon.

In 1967, Han, then an administrative staff member at a middle school on Jeju Island, a popular tourist destination off South Korea’s southern coast, was indicted for allegedly exchanging letters and receiving money from a member of Chongryon. In 1971, he received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for five years. He later suffered from the aftereffects of torture and financial hardship before dying in 1989.

Founded in 1955, Chongryon represents ethnic Koreans in Japan who maintain loyalty to Pyongyang. In South Korea’s past, even alleged connections to the group frequently resulted in professional blacklisting, state surveillance and suspicion of communist sympathies.

Chongryon women present a bouquet to a staff member of the North Korean women's national football team at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Feb. 25, 2024. Yonhap

Compared to standard retrial requests, cases involving historical injustices are more frequently granted and have a higher likelihood of resulting in acquittals.

According to a 2024 report by the Judicial Policy Research Institute, 20.5 percent of general retrial petitions are accepted, and only 4 percent of those lead to acquittals or similar outcomes. But in cases tied to past political or social injustice, 83.6 percent of retrial requests are granted and more than two-thirds result in acquittals.

As a result, state compensation for victims has been on the rise.

According to data submitted to Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok of the People Power Party, the government in 2023 paid 43.68 billion won ($31.8 million) in compensation to defendants acquitted through retrials, significantly higher than the annual average of 27.3 billion won from 2019 to 2022.

The Ministry of Justice said the total payout increased despite a drop in the number of cases, noting that retrials involving past injustices, such as violations of the National Security Act or under martial law, often lead to larger compensation amounts.